I'm setting up a new trading computer and will be installing an operating system on a new 1.4 Ghz Athlon CPU. From the site it seems Windows 2000 is my best choice. Should I consider Windows XP, Windows 2000 Pro or others?
My opinion is that either Windows 2000(professional) or Windows XP would be fine. Either choice should be stable enough to handle all the trading software you can get your hands on Make sure you get a lot of Memory(ram) for your system. Running numerous memory intensive programs such as Charting software, etc., requires you to load that baby up with RAM. I use: Windows2000 professional AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.13Gz processor 512mb PC2100 DDR RAM Matrox Millenium G450 graphics card No problems yet.
Also, you need to make sure your software is compatible with the operating system you choose. Of course, different software vendors will have their own operating system requirements but windows2000 works with almost all software I've come across.
IMHO, if you're buying now, I would go with Win2K, it's tested and proven. I plan to buy a new computer next year about 6 months after Win xp comes out in late Oct. That one will have Win XP installed, I'll wait till after the first service pack fixes come out. I don't think you want to buy a trading computer with a beta test operating system.
I've heard that Windows XP will only let you install the operating system once per the licensing agreement. If for some reason you need to re-install the operating system...or if you want to install it on another computer...you need to call Microsoft to get an additional license. WinXP also has some other Big Brother features that I can't think of right now. It looks like Win 2000 is going to be the operating system of choice for the next few years. I would like to see trading software that runs on Unix, Linux, or other open source code. I think that is the future, but it is going to take us a while to get there. Alex
Good day, I recently subcribed to MSFT's XP RC1. And to be honest, I don't see any real system differences. It is however much prettier, if you like that kind of look, but it comes at a price. The new GUI will make application launches and technically the whole system slower. The GUI is way to heavy. But you can switch back to the classic windows interface and then the system is slightly quicker but nothing really noticeable. I have not seen any major issues with hardware support. XP supports all 2000 software but most of the software will not work using the new XP interface. I have found that to be the general rule for large apps like Realtick. But there is a nice convenient compatibility wizard that will help you get 2000 software working on XP. To cut thing short, its not a large leap foward. I agree that Win 2k will be OS of choice for the next few years. If your thinking about XP I would not upgrade for atleast several months after its official release, this way there will patches for the major bugs that pop up. XP is nothing to rave about. "I would like to see trading software that runs on Unix, Linux, or other open source code." -- aldrums That would be the dream... yk
I have been using Windows 2000 for over 1 year now about 8 hours per day running charting and trading applications, and so far the Operating System has not crashed once on me. The applications have crashed, but it didn't affect the other applications or crash the OS. Windows 2000 has had two service packs, SP1 and SP2. Compared to Windows98 and WindowsNT, it was worth it to switch to Windows 2000 right when it came out. But so far I see 0 reasons to switch from Windows 2000 to Windows XP.. Both Windows and Office are getting the point where each new version has very little incremental value. Yet, MSFT keeps raising the prices. MSFT gets about $30 more per copy of Windows2000 from OEMs than Windows NT or 98. It will be interesting if MSFT prices Windows XP higher than Windows 2000. Fleance
I'm going to install Win2000 on my desktop computer. It has 2 drives, C: and D:. I plan to back up all my files on D: and then reformat C: and fresh install W2K on C:. Will I be able to get the files or see D: which will be in Win98 format from the new C: with W2K?